Work-Life Balance Practices, Employee Attitudes, and Behaviors at Work: The Mediating Role of Work-Life Conflict

Organizations have sought to apply work-life balance (WLB) practices to help employees resolve conflict between work and personal life roles in order to improve employees\u27 job-related outcomes. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between WLB practices and work-life conflict (WLC), as well as the link between WLC and job-related attitudes and behaviors. However, it is still unclear whether WLB practices decrease employees\u27 WLC, and, in turn, increase desirable outcomes. The current study examined the relationships among WLB practices, WLC, and three job-related outcomes (organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), and work engagement) in a sample of 91 employees. It was found that the perceived availability of WLB practices was negatively related to both strain-based and time-based WLC, but the actual use of such practices was only related to time-based WLC. The WLC did not mediate the relationship between WLB practices and the three job-related outcomes. The implications of the findings for future research are also discussed